


Love is not only for couples

by MismatchedPurple



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-03
Updated: 2014-07-03
Packaged: 2018-01-03 09:59:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1069141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MismatchedPurple/pseuds/MismatchedPurple
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>No one knows how it actually started... Or who initiated the whole mess of limbs they were entangled. It was raw, pure lust.<br/>No, not only lust. It was more. It's always been much more than that.<br/>Long after the last war, life happens. And demigods discover why love is the root of everything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One

No one knows how it actually started... Or who initiated the whole mess of limbs they were entangled. It was raw, pure lust.  
No, not only lust. It was more. It's always been much more than that.

Love, affection, care appreciation, devotion... Zeal. A mix of feelings intertwining the heroes in a web they, somehow, knew it's always been there, glueing them together, making them whole. They weren't single entities... Separated... Not anymore. They were one.

Mouths found tongues, lips touched, hands travelled through each other's bodies in a frenzied discovery of skin, feeling, touch, emotion.  
Exploring.  
Teasing.  
Groping.  
Feeling.  
Making them gasp, moan, laugh and yell in pleasure.

One may say they might have blamed the alcohol (like many people do). One might and will be wrong.  
It was never the inebriating liquid. It was their lives pushed together.  
Sure, the beverage was sometimes there, but they can attest it might have had only lowered their inhibitions.

  
\----------

It was the regular New Years party at the flat Jason, Piper, Annabeth and Percy shared. People telling stories, sharing moments, remembering feats and why not, counting scars. They were demigods after all. And their lives have never been an easy one.  
Take the apartment they were celebrating for example.

Piper actually never imagined the life she's been having. She'd never had imagined how happy and complete their friends make her. Not when she first set foot in the flat.

First it was the loneliness. Tristan helped his daughter buy an apartment in Manhattan. A good one.  
She wanted something simpler. He insisted on giving her comfort.  
She complained, but in the end accepted it. However, after a few months of novelty, the space she called her home felt too big... too cold... too lonely. Even with her friends popping up and sleeping there more often than not. Piper's flat was some sort of "cheap homey hotel" for them. Then, the first toothbrush found its way to the bathroom.

People might think it was Jason's.

It wasn't.

Annabeth needed a place to stay during her classes at NYU and the daily commute was stressing her a lot. Piper's flat was closer, better and cleaner than the hostel. Or the student's official lodge.  
And it was way better than bothering Sally and Paul (or even Percy) for weeks. Surely they didn't care. But Annabeth did.

Life went on fine for a while. Then, Tristan died on a plane crash.

Piper was devastated.

Piper's mom appeared in a golden glow of bright light the second she sensed her daughter's distress over her loss. Piper was speechless. Annabeth, incredulous. All the demigods in the living room, stared, flabbergasted while Aphrodite just looked at her daughter and opened her arms. Piper flew to the goddess' embrace, red faced, eyes full of tears. She felt the love and the comfort only a mother could provide, for the first time in her life.

And so, the second toothbrush found its way to Piper's bathroom.

Jason couldn't come up with stupid excuses anymore. Excuses he gave himself (and anyone who asked), that, in fact, we're only that. Excuses. Because Jason was afraid of actually growing up. He knew the moment he started living with Piper other commitments would follow, and most of them he thought he wasn't ready for.  
But Piper needed him. She needed him much more than ever, and even when she had her best friend sharing his girlfriend's apartment, it wasn't the same. Piper needed another type of comfort. One that Annabeth couldn't yet provide.

It didn't take long for the third toothbrush to find its way to the apartment.  
Seaweed brain he was, Percy took a long time to figure out that Annabeth's home was Piper's home; and to an extent; his and Jason's.

No, they didn't have anything remotely similar to a four-way relationship. They just shared the living costs. It was an excellent way to keep up with the high bills and scores of having a nice place to call home in the overpriced NY.

Each couple had their own bedroom. Of course, much had changed since Piper first decorated her flat, but now it wasn't only hers anymore... and the walls, furniture, appliances, mess, clothes and lives reflected that. In a few months; the too cold, too big, too lonely apartment wasn't like that anymore. It was full of life, talk, fights, laughter. It was their home.

They shared the housework (more often then not, they fought over who would do what), the bills (somehow they were balanced on that... "Thank you Wise Girl", they would repeat over and over), the responsibility (sometimes the killing of some nasty intruders too) and their lives, but not their beds or their sex lives. Or their feelings.

Pfft.

How wrong they were.

The first months were the most complicated ones. Not because sharing with four different people was difficult (it indeed was!!!), but because four powerful demigods in one place called too much attention.

Jason insisted they move out at first. Percy agreed.

Piper didn't talk to them for a week (Jason slept in the couch for longer than that) and she would continue the silent treatment (Jason's punishment included) if Annabeth hadn't made the airhead and the seaweed brain see reason: this flat was the only thing Piper had from her father.  
It was his last gift for her, all the rest had been sold to pay expenses (and debts, loads of debts) the actor had left behind.

When Annabeth finally explained everything, they were silently looking abashed. Staring down, completely ashamed.  
Contrary to reason, Percy is the first one to verbally apologise. Jason soon follows. And all four hug and cry, saying how sorry they were.  
It was then they should have understood they were actually married to each other. But they didn't.

Nonetheless, the monster problem was only mitigated when Ares suddenly visited them.

Yes. Ares.

It turns out Aphrodite cared more for them than they realized and the goddess bullied her lover into working with his father, his uncle, his sister and Hecate into weaving some sort of protection for their flat.

Luckily Percy wasn't home when the war god visited and after doing what Aphrodite insistently pegged him, he left grinning, saying the goddess was mean.

Nobody understood why.


	2. Two

From that day on, they shared their worries, troubles, happy stories (and the not so happy ones) and their laughter. All of them. together.

Once, Piper had a real nasty can of worms to deal at the university. One might think Jason stepped up to help her, yet, like the first toothbrush, it was Annabeth who actually did. After that, the two women bonded in a way their boyfriends couldn’t understand. They started sharing much more than only their meals...   they started sharing feelings.

Moreover, they realised that what they felt for each other was indeed much more than just friendship, and, weirdly it hadn’t lessened a single bit what they felt for the two men in their lives.

It dazed, disoriented, mortified and puzzled the two female half-bloods. They have been taught all their lives (parents, media, society, friends... the list was endless) that romantic love involved only one partner. One could love just another person at the same time. One true love was eternal and forever held for one single person. Romantic love was considered true love only, and only if, felt and related to an individual person.

Their feeling had become so strong and so unbound that they ached one for the other.

One day, Piper and Annabeth were cooking together. Their boyfriends were out, one at work and the other at college. It was the ‘girl's day off’. Amidst loads of talk and fun; alluring glances, pleasant small touches and enchanting laughter also filled the kitchen and brightened the two demi-gods’ day.

And they kissed.

They shared such an intense lip and tongue fight, complete with hands travelling, gasps and moans, that when it ended, they had to catch their breath for several minutes before trying to even talk. They stared at each other, wary of their actions, their feelings... everything. They blushed feverishly and ran, each to their bathroom to take a very cold shower to cool off.

Jason and Percy didn't really understand what the heck was wrong with their significant others that day, the girls acted really odd. Both felt something was indeed off, but neither touched the subject.

What exactly was really strange?

Well, as soon as Jason got home, Piper jumped on him, straddling the son of Zeus between her legs while he tried to walk. She looked tense, anxious and quite distressed at the same time. Her kaleidoscope eyes had a tinge of a rare and weird feeling behind that Jason couldn't quite figure out. He tried asking, but Piper cut him, kissing him feverishly, like there wouldn’t be any tomorrow. Annabeth, who was in the living room watching tv, blushed so deeply at their friends PDA (and the daughter of Athena had never ever flushed like that, Jason noticed) that the boy thought something might be offbeat, but as fast as the thought came to his mind, it vanished, completely drowned by his girlfriend’s distractive ministrations.  He and Piper closed themselves in the bedroom and didn't leave it for two days in a row.

That might have been a pretty normal attitude for vacation days if it weren't for Annabeth doing the exact same thing to Percy.

The two big three material didn't actually complain.

It was like Piper and Annabeth were trying to reassure themselves of their love and their feelings. As if they were telling themselves through actions that they were not becoming nuts.

A few days later, Jason’s mind started working again and that nagging feeling that something weird was happening with his girlfriend (and perhaps it was a girl thing, because Annabeth was a bit off too) but upon asking, Piper nonchalantly dismissed her oddness as PMS. 

Annabeth and she were acting weird.

He got some glances between the two female half-bloods he’d only seen Piper giving him so far. He felt confused and disoriented, but dismissed as stress. NYC was overwhelming after all.

Being the seaweed brain he was, Percy didn't actually notice anything before Jason mentioned that something was strange with the girls a few weeks later after the blond started getting the exchanged glances. The son of Poseidon, oblivious as always, also dismissed Jason’s suspicion as stress.

Then, Piper got sick.

I mean really really sick. She was bed-ridden for days in a row. Apollo’s kids from camp visited her to try to discover what was wrong (and heal her).

Several tried. None got anything. Nothing at all.

They didn't know what was wrong or how to make Piper feel well again. Annabeth was more distraught than Jason; and that made Percy worry so much that he found a way for Apollo himself to visit.

The god looked and tried everything he knew (or so he said he did), but Piper didn’t get any better. Annabeth fell into a stupor when the god said he couldn't do anything and ran off the apartment. Percy followed. They only came back when they managed to get Piper’s mom to visit.

The goddess saw her daughter and smiled, saying she’d never thought Piper would get **that** trait and after kissing her tenderly on the forehead, said good bye and vanished in a blindly pinkish light.

The three cousins looked one to another, flabbergasted, completely clueless and quite angry that nothing they’d done worked out. 

They took turns looking after the “beauty queen”. Friends visited. Even Nico di Angelo.

With the son of Hades’ visit, Piper’s flat dwellers finally got some relief: the Ghost King assured them she wasn’t dying (even though he didn’t know what was wrong with her) any soon. He could feel that. 

Three days later Piper opened her eyes.

It turns out that Aphrodite’s kids had another ability besides charmspeak. They could “see" love ties. How people were bounded by feelings, how the thread of their emotions connected one to another, and by seeing that, they could alter (or not) the reality of affection, anger, empathy, desire, love and everything in between, like an enhanced empathy sense. It was such a rare and difficult gift that when a kid of the goddess of love developed it, they spent days in a comatose like trance. Their mortal part adapting to the new “sight-sense”. The gift was so rare (and it hadn't been seen in over a millennia) that everyone forgot about it.

When Piper finally opened her eyes, she wanted to be alone. They learned later that it was utterly overwhelming for her, it took her weeks to finally leave the bedroom. She only allowed Annabeth to visit (and only once a day).

Some time after, she started living her normal life again. Then, it all turned upside down.

The connection threads Piper saw turned brighter the stronger they were. And she saw an intricate web permeating them. All four of them. She didn't understand it at first. Then, she decided testing it; trying it out. She kissed Annabeth again. And she saw that their connection thread was as bright and as strong as the one that linked her to Jason (or the one she saw connecting Annabeth and Percy).

When Piper finished kissing Annabeth (who reciprocated happily after being unsure for half a second), the girl explained everything to Athena’s daughter. The threads, the brightness, the connections. She explained and confessed she loved (and wanted) Annabeth as much as she did Jason. That she’d never thought it’d be even possible, but now she saw it was. And she knew Annabeth felt the same for her. 

Piper could feel it... and see it.

Annabeth laughed dryly and hugged Piper fiercely, answering her when the other asked, reassuring that everything would be all right, because Athena always had a plan.

And, Annabeth’s plans always worked, after all, she was the Wise Girl.


	3. Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally got my hands on editing and re-writing this chapter. Let's hope my muse doesn't disappear for that long. (Edit date: 10/25/16
> 
> Enjoy!!  
> =======

Annabeth was a very scientific mind oriented person. Reasons, logic, patterns and paradigms helped her realise things, analyse situations and understand details of everything that surrounded her. Sometimes, it was a blessing. Others, a curse. However, being the Wise Girl she was, she was quite good on discerning when it was one and when it was the other.

The fact was she needed more data. It was absolutely adamant she make an infallible plan. Differently than how most times had been on which their lives were at stake, their mental stability (and why not say their lives? Just because there - theorically - were no risk of dying?) was less preoccupying. Or so she thought.

When Piper detailed her new gift, Annabeth’s curiosity flared like a scientist studying some sort of new phenomenon (and certainly there was a tinge of that in the daughter of Athena’s uhums) and she asked if Piper was willing to test it out.

At first Piper felt unsure. She didn’t know how to control it, or its extent very well. As it was with her beginnings of dealing with charmspeak (that she now knew very well she couldn’t actually order people to do things if they themselves didn’t have the tendency to do in the first place, even if it was very, very deep), she was afraid of manipulating people into feeling something that wasn’t real. And also the fact that it always tire her a lot. She thought it was Percy (or was it Nico?!? She didn’t remember) who said that with great powers come the great need to take a nap. And whenever Piper activated her new gift too much she slept like a log. She still didn’t know how it worked to turn the switch on (or off) her new ability.

Then Annabeth explained part of her plan: get more data. And that wouldn’t be difficult, it was like observing and taking notes about her new talent. And since it was related to feelings, trying to stir them a bit (not much) to note and write down any differences in the pattern.

So, the two demigods thought over and over how to do that; and decided that the best way was to make their home like a test ground, like practicing sword-fighting. However it had to be some sort of a secret, like as Annabeth put it "a double-blind experiment". She even told Piper not to tell her anything about her findings yet, so she could also be part of it. Trying to get no interference. Thus, she told the daughter of Aphrodite to keep a journal on which she would try to take as many notes as she could, describing what she saw and felt every hour for a week, analysing the threads and trying to access the mood of every flat dweller when they were home.

Piper agreed, that would indeed help her understand how it worked (and thinking back, it’d have been a good thing to have done with her charmspeak had she'd got the time back then to do it) but the first three days she had her gift activated for so long (she purposely chose a weekend so she could have more freedom) got Piper so tired that she ended up sleeping for 24h right after the CBS News Program on Sunday.  
\-----

Jason was so worried his girlfriend started keeping some sort of secret diary she wrote on every hour and every time he brought it up, Piper dismissed as something she was working on with Annabeth for college

Jason started to get weary

He invited Percy for some coffee after college/work and opened his heart to Poseidon’s heir, in fact just wishing to vent off some of his preoccupation, not actually hoping Percy would care much; as he didn’t when he brought it up some time ago.

He didn’t expect Percy to voice his worries back at him.

Jason was speechless. Percy was silent.

It was then they decided they needed to actually put the subject on the table with their girlfriends. Yeah... Tell them everything and then try to understand what it really was going on.

Easier said than done.

Walking back home had never been so tense... Percy tried making small talk, but Jason's mind was everywhere. He couldn't think straight. He knew Percy he was oblivious to most things so if even him realised something was off, it meant it was something huge. Really much bigger than even he could ever have considered.

Jason stopped walking. Trying to collect his thoughts was proving to be much more complicated than he had anticipated. It was as if tornadoes were wrecking havoc in every cell of his brain.

When Percy realised Jason had stopped walking, there was almost a block of distance between them both. Frankly he couldn't get his brain to really thinking on why one of his best friends was acting that strangely

Percy stopped and looked at his cousin standing in the middle of the fifth Avenue as if his brain had shut off. Standing there looking at the sky with one of the emptiest stares he had ever seen on him. The son of Poseidon turned round and started juggling back to try to take Jason out of his reverie. What could possibly he be thinking?

When Percy got to Jason and touched his shoulder, the blonde turned his blank stare to him and asked one of the strangest questions he had ever heard spewing out of Jason's mouth and Percy had heard, seen and lived plenty of weird stuff. Yeah it was weird. And the weirdest it was that thought had already most probably been through his kelp of a brain and had been lost in middle of all the seaweed and totally forgotten.

How did he know he loved Annabeth? Duh. How couldn't he??

How did he know he wanted to be only with Annabeth? What the fuck was that question? Percy gave Jason one of his insanely duh stares. The blonde was thinking too much and thinking too much only meant headaches; and Percy wasn't really found of headaches. No need to keep pondering and trying to understand, the thing was feeling duh. He felt that; end of story.

Jason laughed and dismissed the whole thing like it was nothing, but the damage (because it wasn't exactly a real damage, it was more like that something that stinks a whole lot if you tried to mess with it, and it might explode at any second) had been done. The idea was there.

Both boys were feeling weird, they were feeling stuff they didn't exactly understand... they were dealing with things they didn't know how to name or to even begin getting to actually try doing it. Hey, give them a monster at any time and day... hacking and slashing is easier than all this thinking.

When they arrived home, everything was dark and some muffled sounds were coming from Piper and Jason’s bedroom. Worried, they both yielded their weapons up and broke down the door.

What they saw was something they’d never expect. Their girlfriends, one in the top of the other, making out as there were no tomorrow (hades, they didn’t even know if they were happy or sad they were fully clothed).

The two of them stopped by the door like they had been tased. They dropped their weapons and couldn't think, act or even judge. the girls sat on the bed and not a single word was uttered, they only raised their hands in a silent invitation to join... If anyone inquired later how it really began, they wouldn't actually know, because there were no thoughts present that moment in that bedroom...only feelings.

Somehow they made it work. All four of them kissing, groping and making out.

While, in the middle of everything, some clothes found their way to the floor, the desk or even the lamp; Piper realised something amazingly interesting: Jason's and Percy's actions were full of emotion and lust, but they kept something she couldn't quite put her finger on, suppressed. On a whim, she paid more attention not only to their threads but also to their actions.  
And she saw there was something much, much more between their boys than even she or Annabeth could have imagined... Or they themselves showed. They have only been keeping their attention (and their hands, mouths, tongues and lips) to their respective girlfriend like they were enjoying Piper and Annabeth’s show. It kind of clashed to what she was perceiving from the threads, like they were either unaware of or fighting to suppress it.

She didn't understand it yet. But as her gut feeling had never failed her, she asked everyone to stop. Annabeth looked at her with a question in her grey eyes.

Piper smiled broadly and fixed her kaleidoscope eyes on Jason, touching him lightly his chest. She breathed lightly and repeated the gesture on Percy. Then challenged them to kiss each other. Yep. Challenged. But it wasn't a simple dare, no... Her calm voice filled the room provocatively encouraging them to act upon their feelings for themselves. She had decided to use her ability not to control, but for something like she had done with Festus... To awaken.. To stir both big three sons to respond to the calling of their feelings and shed preconceived social notions. It wasn't an order. It was an invitation.

Annabeth gasped and tried voicing a small protest but Piper shut her up with just one look, a “I've got this” kind of stare.

Jason felt like something inside him was snapping when he heard Piper daring he and Percy to kiss, but it wasn’t a bad sort of snapping, it was like some kind of block; a wall that prevented Jason to act the way he truly wanted, crumbled and disappeared... like it was making him feel free...

He looked at Percy’s eyes and realised something similar was happening to his cousin... It was written all over his face. Piper stepped back and smiled.

When they stepped forward, almost at the same time, their mouths clashed... And then they kissed. And kissed. And kissed. Like there was no tomorrow.

And the girls laughed lovingly, as if they liked the story.

And then Jason felt someone behind him, but he didn’t care who it was, Percy was so demanding and his senses were so out there that he moaned really loud and when he opened his eyes; he saw Piper was sitting in the bed, only looking at the three of them, chuckling softly. An amused and happy look on her face.

Wait...

Three?

He was sandwiched between Percy and Annabeth. The analytical part of his mind wanted to protest, but his heart, his feelings, didn’t.

That night Piper could see that threads between the four of them were so strong and so bright that her heart almost burst out of love and pleasure. What her mom said once? All acts of love and pleasure were offerings to her, a blessing.

They shared their intimacy at last.

The morning after wasn’t so easy when she woke up to Percy and Annabeth’s shouts from the living room.

Percy felt betrayed. He was feeling left out, played with, used like an old rag. Yep, kelp-like brains kinda got in the way of really getting the big picture, getting what it really was. Or so Annabeth had shouted.

Piper just walked to him and put her hands on his chest, right over where his heart was. And not knowing exactly why (or how) she did it, she opened her "vision" until she saw and felt their feelings for each other quite clearly. And she poured everything into Percy’s heart.

Percy’s eyes widened and he trembled as if a lightning suddenly jolted him from head to foot.

He murmured it couldn't be possible, but he felt it. And somehow he knew the daughter of Aphrodite wasn’t making anything up or forcing anything at him... or at them. No one had been used. They had acted upon their feelings.

He realised Piper opened her enormous heart to show him how she felt... how Annabeth felt... how Jason felt... towards him, her, his girlfriend, his... friend... He didn't even know how to name this... Friendship??

No. They were much more than that, more than just friends, he now understood that.

Percy didn't realise when the tears had taken up all his face. He saw Piper’s smile, Annabeth's loving gaze and voiced a really small apology. He had exploded without thinking. Like he mostly did.

Annabeth had her hands in front of her mouth, her eyes as wide as saucers, when Jason entered the room only in his pyjama bottom, all confused, scratching his head. He barely missed getting Piper who had just fainted, exhausted.

As it was with the whole moving out of the apartment story, it was Annabeth who explained to the boys what Piper had confided in her. How the daughter of Aphrodite started seeing the emotion threads, how both girls decided to try to understand better piper's new ability, how groundless she felt when she realised she’d seen the feeling they had between themselves... hades, the feeling they all have been having for each other and weren't being truthful to themselves.... how piper knew they have been feeling much more than friendship q for quite a while... Heck, not only her and Annabeth, but also Percy and Jason... How piper and Annabeth's feelings shifted when they solved that problem at university; heck, actually since they’ve all moved together to Piper’s flat.

And how she realised that loving Piper didn’t actually mean she loved Percy less... Or that one feeling, one relationship had to, necessarily, exclude the other. And then Annabeth cried... She cried because she felt the love they have been sharing. And she cried because it, theoretically didn't make sense at all, but at the same time made all the sense in the world, because feeling and understanding had always been something very different one from another.  
Percy chuckled and embraced her, saying he understood.

The boys never said a single word during Annabeth's monologue. They were all sitting on the couch, Percy embracing Annabeth with one arm and Jason with the other. Piper on Jason's lap, sleeping soundly, exhausted. Jason played tenderly with Piper’s hair, one question burning his mind.

In fact, one memory. Split.

-


	4. Four

Jason was relaxing on the couch in a sunny afternoon. He’d been practicing a lot and training half-bloods in both camps for the past days. His new job as a gym instructor was good and rewarding but nothing like teaching the new ones how to fight; it had been sword practice day at Camp Half-Blood and he arrived earlier than expected that day and decided to relax a little before taking care of the tasks he had to do at home.

 

He and Piper had been living under the same roof after her dad died. He wasn’t the only one sharing the apartment and he was glad on that. It was really nice to have Percy and Annabeth living there too (even if they were out in a scouting mission for Chiron for a few days). Therefore, it had been only Piper and him for the past week or so.

 

It was wonderful. He, actually, had never imagined how easy it’d be sharing their lives. It was like a big puzzle that fit together nicely (but which, sometimes, felt incomplete...).

 

Kicking back his laziness and glancing at the clock on the wall, the hero decided to finally wipe out all the grime and sweat on his skin after this morning’s sword fighting. Piper would be a bit (only a bit??) mad if she arrived home and saw him sitting on their couch in his state. He got up, fetched his toiletries went to the bathroom and turned the shower on. 

 

He preferred showers to baths. All his life baths only reminded him of New Rome and none he’d taken outside those walls had been good. Chuckling, he remembered that, in fact, there had been some with his girlfriend that might indeed topple those New Rome ones.

 

He stripped out of his clothes, threw them into the laundry basket and stepped into the hot water letting the liquid relax his muscles. 

He was almost turning off the shower tap when a low bumpt, a weird splash and a growl called his attention behind him. With his luck, it was some kind of pervy monster wanting nothing PG13 like stuff.

Water splattered everywhere and Jason looked back, turning his posture and trying to look ready (and intimidating) for a fight, thinking that he probably looked ridiculous and his challenger would actually laugh its ass off for his lack of clothes... or a weapon. Call it bad timing? Yep. 100% sure.

 

Jason’s eyes bulged when he saw that the ‘monster' was a crouched, doused in water and grime, bloody Nico di Angelo. A reddish hue tinged not only the floor and the white bathtub tiles but also the younger boy’s face when he raised his rapidly widening eyes.  Mumbling a faint sorry apology before coughing up some blood, Nico tried getting up, failed miserably and passed out.

 

Jason was dazed for a while before his instincts kicked in and he got the smaller boy and stripped him looking for the wound. Nico was out, completely out. His head lolled back and forward while Jason gently washed him.

 

That was the scene Piper found when she got home and heard the shower. She could never imagine she would find her boyfriend, naked, showering a very naked (and wounded) other guy, but with her eyes full of real concern, she helped Jason take care of the demigod in his arms. There were few situations on which she’d seen this look on him: whenever he was afraid of losing someone he loved and couldn't do much about it. However the thought didn’t quite register in the conscience of the female demigod until much, much later. There were more important matters to be addressed at that moment.

 

They dressed Nico’s wounds - Piper had learned a thing or two from Apollo’s kids, very useful when in an emergency (nectar and ambrosia could perform nice healing when also used in other ways) and jason was very, very thankful for that - and clothed the underworld kid in Piper’s most comfy sweatpants and t-shirt. Jason gave the idea, principally because his (or Percy’s for that matter) would look too big. They settled Nico in their bed and waited for him to wake up.

\--

 

Nico was feeling comfortable. Too comfortable. His head was still a bit woozy and he didn't know where he actually was. He was fearful of opening his eyes, He must have imagined things, that’s the only possible conclusion. He had been fighting a rogue underworld monster as his father’s command when the wound he had gotten before that fight (the one he’d thought it had already healed) reopened and in a distraction mishap he almost got killed. As fast as he could, while the dust of the rogue had been settling, he summoned the darkness and shadow travelled to a safe place.

 

He never would have imagined the safe place would be Jason’s shower. The young demigod blushed upon remembering Jason’s very naked body under the shower. He sighed.

He felt someone brush lightly his forehead with some warm damp cloth and risked opening his eyes.

Jason’s electric blue eyes met his ones, concern all over his face. Nico blushed even more.

 

Upon being asked if he was feeling better, the ghost king just grunted and readied himself for retreating the darkness to shadow travel once more. He didn’t want to be a burden. He didn’t need anyone’s pity or petty empty concerns. He was feeling ashamed, too ashamed to face the son of Jupiter or anyone else.

 

But Jason realised what Nico was about to do, he was leaving... escaping once again, like he’d done many times before... and Jason couldn’t allow it. He held Nico’s left wrist lightly, because he couldn’t really restrain the son o Hades if the guy really wanted to leave and begged him to stay. 

Jason didn't understand very well why he was feeling so worried, so preoccupied with the boy on the bed...What was making him so anxious... it was... it was something he akin to what he felt when he saw Piper falling in the canyon... His memory had been far from the normal back there, but he was absolutely sure of the similarity of the warmth that spreaded through his body back there, he was convinced it was the same, however it didn’t quite register in his conscient mind, but his heart felt it... it was so strong that while begging Nico to stay, his voice faltered. 

 

The son of Hades stayed. The young demigod didn’t quite comprehend the reason, but he allowed himself to be taken care of by Jason and Piper. Grudgingly acting, giving only grunts as answers. Mostly to Jason.

You see, Nico was in conflict inside himself, he’d been so alone and lost and never feeling accepted (or that he really belonged anywhere) that it was hard to believe people acted willingly without any agenda. It was very, very difficult to accept that Piper and Jason were helping and caring for him only because he was loved, appreciated, wanted there. It was slapping Nico in his face, but he denied to see.

Then, one day, without any warning, any sign, alert or hint, Nico left. No goodbyes, no thank yous or see you laters. He left like that because it was too painful to stay there. He knew exactly where this was going to lead. He had been down that path... he couldn’t feel like that for Jason too... he would shatter.

 

When Jason couldn't find Nico in the apartment and he couldn't reach him through IM's he thought his heart would burst out of his chest. He couldn't figure out that what he felt for the younger boy was as much as the same of what he felt for Piper. His mind was even in a bigger tumult because he felt that one feeling didn't actually cancel the other as he had been taught all his life. He felt sullen and apathetic for days and he was damn grateful for Piper’s understanding of his moods and for not bombarding him with questions he himself didn't know (or couldn't yet give) the answer for. 

That sullenness stuck with the lightning boy for some days, until he started to realise that it was hopeless (at least he concluded it at that time).

 

Then, one day, he got home from work and Piper jumped on him kissed him in a    way as if trying to tell him something. Jason attempted to phrase a question once or twice, only to be cut off by her tongue in the hottest kiss he’d shared with her in front of people.

 

Annabeth was in the living room.

 

Jason noticed her, but Piper’s attention and ministrations were short fusing his brains. His thoughts were woozy and focused only in one thing: get her to the bedroom and... well... you know pretty well what. They didn’t leave the bedroom for three days.

 

Well, you see, if Jason were a psychic or a future reader he would have figured out that he felt much more for the sin of Hades that he actually let on, or even acknowledged; and that his girlfriend was feeling something similar for Annabeth... but as he wasn’t any type of oracle, his mind got distracted quickly and couldn't form a thought and see what his heart was trying to tell him/

 

He didn't really understand all the feelings that were beginning to flood himself... If he, in fact, had; his mind would grind with a sonorous click and he would have started to figure out all the real nuts and bolts about the birds and the bees. He would have sorted out that love wasn't bound by anyone’s gender, sexual organs, preferences or desires. He would have started to discover that he loved, liked, felt attracted or aroused by people. Period. He would have known that the uneasiness he had been feeling for days was sourced in several facts, not only the glances he’d been getting between Piper and Annabeth.

 

Aahh, but his mind never had much time to process anything... or every little thing he perceived... nor his feelings got really sorted out. Because fate was never nice. It always finds a way to teach things we need to learn in the most unconventional (and sometimes the most tortuous) way possible. He wasn’t able to make it all because the Fates decided they liked making things interesting...

 

Piper got sick.

 

Jason would have given anything to trade places with Piper. He would much have preferred him to be bedded for days to an end than seeing her like that, agonisingly waiting for her not only to get better but also for him to stop feeling utterly useless for not being able to heal her the way his mind thought he should be responsible to. He felt horrible. He just wanted his Pipes to be up and about, teasing him, smiling, talking and confusing him with her adorable actions, loving him, being with him. 

 

It felt worse and worse the more time it passed with her unconscious. It deepened more when Apollo's kids couldn't do anything. He felt dreaded when Apollo himself visited and said he had his hands tied. 

He was afraid of loosing Piper the same way she lost her dad: a fatality Jason couldn't act against. And even if he said back there how sorry he had been, only now he might have started to have the real dimension of how Piper felt when her father died. Or how mad she felt when he suggested they left the last of her father's heirloom.

 

You see, Jason'd always been bright and intelligent, but when feelings got him... it was like the world turned upside down, it overwhelmed him.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some twists and turns huh?  
> Bonus for you peeps. I'm writing Ch 5, and intend to revisit Ch3. If you enjoyed, please leave me some feedback

**Author's Note:**

> This is 'unbetaed'. English IS NOT my first language, I'm trying my best here.
> 
> I've been toying with this idea in my head for quite a while and only now I could finally write.


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